One of the biggest adjustments Terry Mahr had to make after marrying an American and moving to the United States from her native England in 1976 was to the sedentary lifestyle. "At home, I walked a mile each way to the station for my commute into London, walked to the office, walked to the shops, walked to mail a letter," the 60-year-old resident of Oregon, Ohio, remembers. "Everything there was predicated upon walking, but when I moved here I began using a car to do everything."

Mahr discovered running six years later, and until her recent graduation to the 60--64 division, ranked among the best 55--59 competitors in the country. Last year she recorded times of 20:05 for 5K, 33:01 for 5 miles, 41:51 for 10K, and 1:30:29 in the Naples Daily News Half Marathon. "Running is a lifestyle for me now," she says, "and if I never raced again I would still want to be able to run."

It all started in 1982, when Mahr noticed her landlady running in circles around a field. "It seemed a bit nonsensical to me at the time," she recalls, mentioning that she was active in field hockey, cricket, lacrosse, netball, and also did some high jumping and hurdling during her youth in England, but had never considered running beyond the hurdles distances. "But I talked to my landlady about it and then joined her. I progressed until I could run around my metro park, a distance of 3 miles, without stopping. That was a milestone for me."

After about six months, Mahr joined her landlady in a local 5K. In her second 5K, she won the women's race and was hooked. She continued to progress for the usual seven or so years, achieving most of her personal best times in 1990--91, at ages 41--42. However, her most memorable race is the 1995 Applethon Classic in Elyria, Ohio. "Bill Rodgers was there and was the overall winner," she relates. "I was the first female and 10th overall, the first woman in 15 years to place in the top 10, and it was the first time two masters had won overall titles. That made it special."

She also has fond memories of 1995 Cherry Street Mile in Tulsa in which she ran in 4:57. "I had no idea I could break 5 minutes, and that remains as a real achievement for me."

Mahr, who carries 122 pounds on a 5-foot-7 1/2-inch frame, tries to put in up to 50 miles a week of training now, although the winter weather was setting in at the time of this interview and she had missed a couple of days. "I used to go out and brave the icy roads," she says, "but that's one concession to age I've made. I think it's time to have the treadmill tuned up."

Employed as an administrative assistant for a Fortune 500 company, Mahr does the bulk of her training during her lunch break and on weekends.

She also trains with light weights for most of the year. "During the summer, I spend every available hour working in the yard," she adds, "so the digging and shoveling keep me in shape then. I love to garden, which is the English in me."

Training Philosophy

"I don't run high mileage, so I try to make the quality workouts count. I am not too structured about timing my training runs and tend to run according to how I feel or how the weather dictates. I intuitively know if I had a good workout. Obviously, I have slowed down and do have to take more recovery time after a long run or hard workout. And if time restraints necessitate a day off, I don't go into a panic about not running that day."

Master's LogMahr's training two weeks before the 2008 Parkersburg Half Marathon, where she ran 1:30:42.Sun: 6 miles @ 7:45 paceMon: 8 miles @ 7:30 paceTue: 2-mile warm-up, 12 x 300m repeats on dirt track in 60 seconds with 1-minute rest between each, 2-mile cool-downWed: 8 miles @ 7:30 paceThu: Hill work on bridge upgrade, 15 x 30 seconds with 2-mile warm-upFri: 7 miles @ 7:30 paceSat: 15 miles @ 7:15 paceRace Week: Same, except 6 miles on Monday and Wednesday, and 8 x 300m on Tuesday, and an easy 2 miles on Friday, the day before the race. "I still do the hills two days before the race, as they don't seem to affect me as long as I take it easy the day before."

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